A Sweeping Victory
by iviscrit
Summary: The battle to secure Omashu has proved successful, but Kuvira's most important officer is missing. For day 6: steady of Baavira Week.


Kuvira gritted her teeth as one of her soldiers fashioned a tourniquet around her arm. "Thank you," she said shortly. "I'm fine, are there any who are seriously injured?"

"They are being attended to, commander."

"Good." The battle for Omashu had proved the most challenging military campaign since Ba Sing Se, and Kuvira could feel the thick layer of dust coating her body atop dried blood on her skin and uniform. It had taken nearly a month of skirmishes with the state army of the corrupt Omashu government, but after a final offensive the state was once again part of the nation and political overhaul would soon be underway. The citizens celebrated her arrival; the fall of the Earth Queen meant the independent city-states were ruled by miniature tyrants and their presence had been requested as early as the securing of Ba Sing Se. Her men were tired, but she could already hear patriotic battle hymns being sung in ragged voices and victorious chants as the injured prepared to return to the base.

"Wait," Kuvira said, holding up her good arm. "I'm missing an officer."

"We have all of the living and injured accounted for and taken care of, commander," Xi said steadily. "Who is the casualty?"

"Where's Baatar?" Her voice was as steady as ever, but her heart was hammering against her ribcage at the word "casualty," and she suddenly felt lightheaded. Somehow, she didn't believe it was from the injury. She swayed on her feet, and Xi caught her elbow.

"Commander, you need to see the healer."

"I need to see my second in command," she snapped. "We'll head back to camp, but we won't move out until I've gotten to the bottom of this." Xi inclined his head and walked with her to the transports, returning to the base in a tense silence.

The majority of her injuries were minor and easily dealt with, but the gash on her arm promised to be painful. The healer was maddeningly gentle, and all the while Kuvira wanted to slap away her light touch. "Are you nearly finished?" she snapped, her hands balled into fists and her hair in a damp braid.

"Nearly, your eminence. The cut required sixteen stitches."

Kuvira stifled a groan. "Has there been any word of a sighting?"

"Baatar's squadron is returning."

"And why was I not informed?"

The healer winced. "Apologies, Great Uniter. I thought it wrong to disturb you while your injuries were being treated."

"Finish up," Kuvira said, looked out the window of the medic car. She could feel his uniform under her hands and his arms around her already, and her skin prickled in anticipation.

The troops that had returned brought news far worse than anything she could have expected. For the most part their injuries were minimal, but the ones requiring immediate medical attention clearly hadn't been wounded by the Omashu state army. They were victims of shrapnel wounds and severe burns, rather than blasts from mecha-tanks or crushing earth disks, and Kuvira's eyes narrowed even as her gut twisted in worry. Baatar was still nowhere to be found, and the story his men told her made her want to run from the encampment. She forced herself to listen dispassionately, her hands behind her back and her stance authoritative. No one knew of her relationship with Baatar as far as she was aware, and she was comfortable keeping it that way. It grew increasingly difficult to remain impassive as the men relayed the story to her, however.

Baatar and his squadron had taken the left flank of the military's offensive, only to discover that the stretch of ground Kuvira's team was to cover was fully mined. The first round of soldiers had been lost in the explosion, and Baatar had taken it upon himself to diffuse the situation in the most literal sense. He had forced the pilot out of the ground ship, and scoped out the area with one of the earthbending soldiers assisting, locating and destroying each mine in a methodical fashion and allowing his troops to advance only once each new space of land was safe. Kuvira's face paled as she realized why her group had been ordered to hold back. _He was protecting me_, she thought, wondering when it had turned so cold. She looked outside, startled by the dusky purple sky over the jagged, red-clay terrain, and wondered when night had fallen.

The area had been mostly cleared, but a single mistake had resulted in an explosion that obliterated the tank and sent shrapnel into the ranks. For the most part, the squadron was able to rally and proceed with the onslaught, making Kuvira's part of the battle possible and giving her the fighting chance she had needed to win. Baatar was nowhere to be found, however, and Kuvira found herself desperately hoping that he had managed to engage the self-eject feature. He had tried to explain it to her the night before the battle, and she had been distracted and dismissive, her mind on an earlier skirmish. The memory galled her, and she resolved to listen to him with rapt attention in the future, no matter how tempting it was to zone out. _If there is a future_, a cold little voice in her head reminded her. He still hadn't returned.

The soldiers went to their barracks, and the camp resumed its usual routine after a day in the field. Her peacekeepers had been deployed to secure the state now that the signed treaty was in her possession, and a new state was added to the map in their room. She paused, staring at the papers that littered her desk, Baatar's reports comprising half of them. She wondered if it was solely her room again, and she felt nauseated. Night had fallen and the winter air was cutting, but she wandered outside, her arms crossed over her chest and a wool overcoat snugly wrapped around her nightclothes. It stung as it entered her nose and whipped her hair into disarray. Her cheeks felt raw when she went to the base of communications, feeling increasingly despondent and angry that she had to keep up appearances for the troops. Her eyes were watering, and she paused before entering to dab under them, telling herself it was from the unforgiving weather.

"No word from Baatar?"

"No, commmander. We'll alert you if-" The captain paused, bringing the radio to his ear as he received an incoming message. "Come in," he said, and then everything blurred. He was handing her the mouthpiece and the receiver and Kuvira nearly dropped it, her hands shaking, but she brought it to her ear with a final burst of effort cobbled together from the thread of hope the call brought and a refusal to believe he was really gone.

"State your name and order of business," she said, her voice sharp. "This is the interim president of the Earth Kingdom speaking, and this is a violation of the Reunification Order-"

"Kuvira?" His voice was weak over the phone, and she nearly let out a strangled cry of relief. "Kuvira, it's Baatar."

"Are you injured?" Her voice wavered, but perhaps no one had noticed.

"Do you want the truth, or do you not want to worry?"

Kuvira smiled, but it suddenly was hard to swallow. "Tell me the truth. Where are you?"

"I'm... fine," he said, his voice crackly through the static and from the clatter of his teeth chattering. "And it's hard to say.. Have one of the men get a lock on my radio signal, I've been trying to call every so often for hours now. I only just now got within range, so I know I'm not far."

"I need to know where this signal is coming from," Kuvira barked, startling the troops. "This instant."

"Yes, commander."

"Hold on a bit longer," she said, her voice softening as word spread among the troops that the vice president was on his way. "I'm sending them to your location right now."

"Thank you. Kuvira, I love-"

"Tell me when you get back," she said, glancing at the young man waiting expectantly for the radio. "It won't be long."

o0o

Kuvira waited outside the whole while, eyes straining against the darkness for a glimpse of the tank on its way back with Baatar in tow. After what felt like an eternity her fingers were numb and her toes ached from the cold, but she forgot the pain when the tank stopped and two of the men helped a third down, his uniform stained a rusty brown from dried blood with fresh patches blooming at the sites of the injuries.

She ran to him, stopping short of throwing her harms around his neck in greeting. "You need to see a healer," she said curtly. "Can you walk?"

"Do I look like I can?"

"How did you get so far from the war zone?"

"I used the lower half of one of the mecha-suits," he said easily, even as he shivered in the cold. "Can't you interrogate me inside, I've lost enough blood-"

"Sorry," she said, waving the men onward. "Take my coat," she added, yanking it off and wrapping it around his shoulders. It was too small for him, but it seemed to help all the same. She gritted her teeth, hardly feeling the cold night air cut through her nightshirt; despite the cold, the sight of him alive warmed her more than she cared to admit.

"Kuvira-"

"Save your breath," she said, her jaw clenched. "Let's get back to camp, gentlemen."

She stood by as the healer saw to his injuries, probing each wound with clean, gloved fingers and removing shards of shrapnel with sterilized pincers. Baatar winced despite the local numbing, and glanced at her more than once as he gripped the medi-car bedrail instead of her hand. She arched a brow, giving a small, almost imperceptible shake of her head. Her hands remained behind her back as she watched, fingers interlaced, projecting a quiet confidence despite feeling an increasingly imminent meltdown that risked manifesting itself once they were alone together. One of his arms was laced with shrapnel wounds, with a particularly nasty piece lodged near the axillary artery that gave the healer about a half hour's worth of work to remove without causing even more damage. His midsection was riddled with burns from the blast, covered in a layer of dried blood from his arm, the more superficial ones angry and red while the more severe had long since blistered. A thin layer of clear, oozing liquid gave them a disturbing sheen, and Baatar sighed in relief as the healer directed soothing water to the areas. The worst of it didn't seem to pain him, Kuvira realized with worry; as she looked at the ashy, blackened skin at the edges of the angry open flesh, she wondered if he'd sustained serious nerve damage. His left ankle was bound up, and he smiled ruefully at her when the healer announced it was only a sprain, and that there was little cause for worry on that front.

"My foot got caught in the mech before I could disengage," he explained.

"Got caught, or you tried to stay in for as long as you could?"

He avoided her eyes, rubbing behind his head with his good hand. "Don't complain, if it weren't for me Omashu wouldn't be ours by now."

The healer did what she could, dressing the wounds and bandaging the ones she couldn't heal with clean gauze and fresh linen. "Absolutely nothing strenuous," she said firmly. "You can spend the night here, you've had to move on that foot enough and those abdominal injuries are severe. I don't need you opening up-"

"I'd prefer to sleep in my own bed," Baatar said. "Get me a crutch, please."

The healer frowned, but nodded. "Yes, sir," she said, disappearing into the side cabinet.

Kuvira stood next to him, resting her hand on his shoulder. "I'll help you."

He rolled his eyes. "Kuvira, I managed to get close enough to camp to radio despite a sprained ankle by rewiring the circuit board of the lower half of a destroyed mecha-suit. I can make it down a couple of cars." He looked at her bandaged arm. "What happened to you?"

"It's nothing," she snapped, flicking his hand away. "I thought you weren't the reckless one-"

"I lit a burner in the lab while there was hydrogen gas in the area," he said gently. "You just didn't notice me back then."

She smiled, the warmth in her expression quickly replaced by neutrality when the healer returned with a slim aluminum crutch. "Thank you," she said to the woman. "I'll escort him to his room."

"As you wish, Great Uniter."

She eased his bad arm over her shoulders, and they slowly made her way to the officers' car. "My room is closer," she said softly. "Are you tired?"

"Very," he replied. "Lead on."

Bolin was waiting at her door, and his thick eyebrows shot up as he took in the sight of the two. "Yikes... what happened?"

"Minesweeping went poorly," Baatar said, grimacing. "How were the citizens of Omashu after the official signing of the treaty?"

"Really happy to get our help," Bolin said excitedly. "Another state down... how many more to go?"

"Thirteen," said Kuvira. "We're getting there." Baatar smiled at her words, his face turned towards hers and as he thoughtlessly brushed a loose lock of hair from her cheek. Bolin's eyes widened.

"Hey, wait a second!" he said. "What's going on with you two?"

"I'm taking my highest ranking officer to bed," Kuvira said, quirking a brow. "What do you mean, what's going on?"

Baatar reddened and glanced away as Bolin's eyebrows climbed even higher, a slow grin blooming over his face. "Word choice?"

Kuvira paused. "I'm putting my highest ranking officer _to_ bed," she corrected. "As you can see, he sustained some serious injuries-"

"Okay, okay," Bolin said, holding up his hands. "I get it.. you don't want anyone to know about this, that's cool-"

"What is there to know?" Kuvira demanded, her voice like hardened steel.

"It's o_kay_, guys," Bolin said. "We've been placing bets on how long it would take for you two to get together-"

Baatar postively beamed, but Kuvira pinched the bridge of her nose. "Bolin-"

"-and it looks like it happened right under our noses and we didn't even notice! Oh man, this is going to be great-"

"Keep this to yourself," Kuvira snapped. "I will not be accused of favoritism later down the road."

"No, of course not," Bolin said, still grinning. "It's cool, the secret's safe with me. Kuvira, I left the written summaries in your office, am I cool for the night?"

"Yes, you're dismissed, Bolin," she said, her voice softening despite her exasperation. "Good night."

In the privacy of her room, she eased Baatar onto the bed and finally kissed him in greeting. "If they've been placing bets," he murmured, his forehead pressed to hers, "maybe we can let them know by now. They might know already."

Her mind was elsewhere, and to her surprise a shuddery breath escaped her. "Right," she said, closing her eyes and forcing herself to breathe evenly. _He's safe_, she reminded herself. _He's completely safe now._

"Kuvira, it's fine," he said as if he had read her mind, steadying her with his good hand. "I'm fine."

"I know," she said quietly. "Would it make you happy, to let the troops know we're involved?"

"It would make me happy to no longer have to hide it," he said hopefully.

"Fine," she said. "So long as you don't embarrass me in front of them, they all can know.. it's the least I can do after you destroyed a minefield for me."

"I destroyed a minefield for the good of the empire," he pointed out. "I joined this operation for you, don't downplay it."

She kissed him again, keeping it gentle. "Go to sleep," she said. The lights went out, and as she listened to the steady sound of his breathing, each inhale and exhale infused with life, she finally allowed her eyes to close.

* * *

**A/N: this got way longer than I intended but heyo I had fun writing it.**


End file.
